Parents ‘n Schools

The other night, post-game, I tossed and turned until 4 in the morning pondering how to get Little Leaguers to learn what they need to learn about baseball in the short few weeks they have to learn it under my tutelage.
How do teachers get any sleep? (Do they?)
GLO
gordotto@parentsnschools.com
– Share with a Friend –
P.S.   Part of […]

[Read more →]

“When people are in a group, responsibility for action is diffused.” Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point.
A fundamental problem for parents ‘n schools is that nobody… and I mean NOBODY… champions and advocates for parents’ interests (above all other interests) exclusively.
Another fundamental problem for parents ‘n schools is that everybody… and I […]

[Read more →]

In Alberta, and most provinces across Canada, the home building industry maintains a warranty program that serves to back up housing consumers by warranting the quality of their new homes, and serves also to vigilantly scrutinize the performance of the many homebuilders as well as provide useful professional development, certification and improvement.
Government schooling does similar […]

[Read more →]

(GLO — May 2010 — Professor Christenson’s work is increasingly embraced in the world of schooling, and the world at large. Continuing innovations like New York’s “School for One” and hardware innovations like the iPad continue to work to disrupt the traditional world of schooling. This is a good, good thing. One century ago, banks […]

[Read more →]

Meet Dan Meyer via his recent TED talk:
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2010-05-18&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email
then go get to know him even better at his own site:
blog.mrmeyer.com
where you will find (among a great many other useful things) this below… as fine a lesson on what “significant digits” mean as I’ve ever experienced.
GLO
gordotto@parentnschools.com
– Share with a Friend — (Particularly if that friend is a […]

[Read more →]

Professional development means lifelong learning. PD is funded and organized for educators in Alberta (and I would guess most every other jurisdiction within reach of this website). In Alberta, that PD mandate includes parents.
Notionally, at least.
Approximately 100 seminars/conferences per year are organized in the Calgary region serving over 4500 educators. Of […]

[Read more →]

I went to the bookstore the other day to pick up “Well Being — The 5 Essential Elements” by Tom Rath and Jim Harter of the Gallup organization. I appreciated their “Strengths Finder 2.0″ last year, and believe I’ll appreciate this book (and online measuring tool), too.
Online at www.wbfinder.com you’ll find a story reporting that […]

[Read more →]

In my observation, the primary ways parents are “involved” in government schooling are raising money (fundraising) or writing cheques (school fees).
How much in Alberta is raised for government schooling by parent fundraising? It is hard to know. Nobody seems to count. We can perhaps hazard a guess.
A survey of largely rural […]

[Read more →]

I was thumbing through a new book at the bookstore titled “Sh*t My Dad Says” by Justin Halpern, and came across the following excerpt:
“These parents drive like [jerks]. This is an elementary school parking lot, not downtown [freaking] Manhattan.”
The book is very funny.
Buy it for someone you love this Fathers Day.
GLO
gordotto@parentsnschools.com
– Share with a Friend […]

[Read more →]

By the poet Taylor Mali (www.taylormali.com)
16/30: Taylor Mali’s Middle School for Geniuses
I. In My Middle School There Is No Seventh Grade
It’s been replaced with a year of Law School for 13-year-olds
because that’s really what they’re good at anyway:
arguing and bending and protesting and making motions.
The students all wear black robes like little judges.
The curriculum is […]

[Read more →]